


death with dignity

by divine_chicken



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Bittersweet, Blood, Blood and Injury, Death but not permanent yknow?, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:15:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27497032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/divine_chicken/pseuds/divine_chicken
Summary: He knows that his father's laid a finishing blow on him, but as he walks back into the Styx, he probably doesn't realize that this son isn't dead, not quite yet. And if he does, he doesn't care enough to finish him off properly.-Zagreus is comforted in his dying moments.
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 28
Kudos: 406





	death with dignity

He isn't quite sure what he's feeling right now, if he's being honest. He knows that his father's laid a finishing blow on him, but as he walks back into the Styx, he probably doesn't realize that this son isn't dead, not quite yet. And if he does, he doesn't care enough to finish him off properly.

He doesn't think he'll ever get accustomed to the surface. The snow crunches in bizarre ways under his feet as he drags his heavy body across the snow as he finds a place to rest.  
He really wanted to get back to his mother this time around. He'd promised her, even, that he won't be long. He mumbles a quiet apology under his breath, slumping against a boulder. Distantly, he can feel his own blood trickle down his throat, across his chest, from his shoulders all the way down to the snow, like an enchantment Nyx forgot to cast.

He heaves a quiet sigh.

Somehow, the footsteps he hears across the snow aren't foreign to the surface the way he is, but they aren't very different from his, either.

The reaper crosses the distance swiftly, though he doesn't seem overly scared.

"... Zag," he finally says, kneeling down in front of him.  
" I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long." 

The prince looks up at him with glassy eyes.  
" Don't worry," he slurs. " 'Sides, I'm patient," he adds, but his joke dissolves into a coughing fit. The blood paints the inside of his mouth, and he chokes.

Thanatos regards him with his usual glassy mask, but there's something softer hidden beneath all that.

" Are you jus' gonna stand there, or are you going to get it over with?" Zagreus asks, his numb body shivering. 

Thanatos sighs for a moment, his awfully warm hand moving upwards to cup Zagreus's cheek.

" Y-You're fading," he breathes, " but it's not your time yet. We have a few minutes left."  
He hesitates.  
" I can finish it... For you, if you'd like." His grip tightens on his scythe, but Zagreus hesitates.

" Don't," he murmurs.

" Shall I wait, then?" Thanatos asks, his hand lingering on Zagreus's slowly freezing face.

Zagreus nods, his hand moving to squeeze Thanatos's - and if the way his face scrunches up is any indication, he's in quite a bit of pain.

Thanatos sighs, pulling the slowly fading prince into his lap softly, hands gently tracing patterns on Zagreus's back. Zagreus heaves a sigh of relief in return, tucking his head in the crook of Than's neck.  
He is but a speck at that moment, and he wonders if Thanatos realises, that the prince is not much of anything at that moment as his body slowly comes apart at the seams and his sense of self, of the world, slowly dissolves.

" Than?" He manages to slur.

" Yes? What is it, Zag?" His face is impossibly gentle, Zagreus realises, and somewhere along the way, he's wrapped his cloak around the dying prince's shoulders.

" Can you talk to me?" He whispers, hand weakly curling into the fabric of Thanatos's cloak.

"... Of course, Zag," the reaper responds, and Zagreus thanks the gods that Thanatos doesn't ask him any more questions, because he's not quite sure he's able to speak any longer.

He doesn't listen to what Thanatos says when he speaks - because he does open his mouth, and words come out of it, but Zagreus can only listen to the sound. He stays there, listening to the ebb and flow of Thanatos's voice, cradled by him like a broken bird, as the numbing sensation that could only be death creeps up on his body higher and higher. His heart stops first, but somehow he is still there, though watching somewhere from afar.

"... But I've said enough, haven't I?" Thanatos asks him with a small smile, and Zagreus thinks he can hear a sob in his voice.

He will return to the nothingness any moment now, comprised of whatever matter Chaos came from, invisible yet ever present, that moment of grace before he comes out of the Styx once again.

He feels two gentle fingers lidding his eyes shut.

" Sleep now," the voice says, and he dives back into the darkness.


End file.
